Dimensioning lines before creation?

[MulePacker]

Excited to be here a part of the CA community. I am Autodesk proficient, CA is new to me. First question:

In autocad I can CLICK my starting LINE or Wall, point my line in a direction, type my DIMENSION in and Enter. Creates my line without editing length after object is created. Seems I cant figure out if CA has that option?

[gawdzira]

Start dragging and while your left mouse button is still held down hit the Tab key on your keyboard. A text field will appear that has the direction you are dragging highlighted for numerical input. You can also use this method for moving other objects.

[MulePacker]

Thank you sir!

[gawdzira]

@Mule, the other method I use a lot based on past drafting methods is that I make quick disposable reference lines. Similar to using the blue line pencil (this is an actual reality object that can be found drafting museums). When I have a reference line to snap to I use the point to point tool for moving. The point to point tool can be found at the bottom of the screen toolbar (whatever they call it) see the attached pic. I did a short video showing one use for that a while back:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqmJp6fgtNE

[Glenn Woodward]

Or you can start without an existing line by using the Input Line tool.

[gawdzira]

@Glenn, I thought we were trying to wean these guys off the binary teat?

[Doug Park]

You can use tab or enter after you start dragging a line.

While it is straight forward to type in the values, it is often more efficient to rough out the shape then use the automatic dimensions to set things exactly. This is a skill that you probably want to learn because it allows you to easily change the position of pretty much everything quickly and accurately.